by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- The White House's top lawyer will look into exactly how the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan leaked out to the public during President Obama's surprise visit this past weekend.

White House Counsel Neil Eggleston will develop a report "with recommendations on how the administration can improve processes and make sure something like this does not happen again," said Caitlin Hayden, spokesperson for the National Security Agency.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough asked Eggleston to conduct the review and report back to him, Hayden said.

The incident occurred Sunday as Obama prepared to receive a briefing from advisers at Bagram Air Base.

Officials provided a list of meeting participants to a pool reporter who covered the event on behalf of news organizations.

After the pool report went out to members of the media, some journalists noted that the list of attendees included the name of the "chief of station" -- the term used to describe a top CIA official in a given nation.

The name was distributed to thousands of people on the White House media e-mail list.

News organizations have withheld the official's name at the request of the Obama administration, which said that publication could put the official's life in danger.